Here are two truths of comedy: Erudite witticisms retain their humor long after faddish expressions fade away. Oh, and a man in a dress almost always gets laughs.

The beauty of the production of "The Importance of Being Earnest," which is opening Orlando Shakespeare Theater's season, is in the way director Jim Helsinger marries these two notions. The actors play their parts broadly — over-English English accents, wide-eyed grimaces, ridiculous sputtering.

But Oscar Wilde's delicious mix of put-downs, wisecracks and highfalutin nonsense isn't lost among the slapstick. On the contrary, it mostly shines brighter than ever.

Laughing heartily at a delicious line from imperious Lady Bracknell — "35 is a very attractive age. London society is full of women of the very highest birth who have, of their own free choice, remained 35 for years" — one is also laughing at the spectacle of the puffed-up delivery from actor Philip Nolen as the imperious lady.

The Shakes follows the conceit of several productions through the years of casting a man as Lady Bracknell, who oversees the lives of the upper-class youngsters of the late Victorian era who surround her.

Nolen uses the stock comic tricks of man playing a woman — suddenly dropping his voice an octave or two to great effect — but has a delightfully no-nonsense approach that makes him funnier. When he first sweeps onto the stage, it's with an attitude of "yes, I'm a man in a dress — but we're not going to make a fuss about it."

The broad interpretations once in a while make the characters seem a bit simple, but that's not too far off the mark for Wilde's Shakespearean-like plot of star-crossed lovers, impersonations and mistaken identities to make sense.

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